U.S. News & World Report Names Siteman Among Top 10 in Cancer Care

July 17, 2012 – The Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine has been ranked a top 10 cancer center nationally by U.S. News & World Report.

The recognition is part of the overall ranking of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University, which are No. 6 on the news magazine’s 2012 “Best Hospitals” list, released today.

“As a national leader in cancer, Siteman offers patients the very best in clinical care, and we are proud of the unique and innovative research contributions by our world-class faculty,” says Timothy Eberlein, MD, Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor at Washington University and director of Siteman. “We are honored for this recognition of our commitment to the patients we serve.”

The top 10 listing comes only eight years after the National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated Siteman as a Comprehensive Cancer Center, the highest federal designation for U.S. cancer centers. In Missouri, Siteman is the only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and the only cancer center to make the U.S. News & World Report top 10 list. Siteman jumped six spots, from No. 16 last year. Barnes-Jewish is the only Missouri hospital to make the top 10 list. The institution moved up five places since last year.

For the 20th straight year, Barnes-Jewish earned honors as part of the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll, this year ranking sixth nationally overall and in the top 15 in 15 of 16 possible specialties. Fewer than 150 of the nation’s nearly 5,000 hospitals performed well enough to rank in even one of 16 specialties such as cancer.

The methodology U.S. News & World Report uses to rank 12 of 16 specialties is based on a mathematical model combining reputation, mortality rate, patient safety and care-related factors such as nursing and patient services. This year, the magazine changed its methodology, emphasizing measures with a direct link to the quality of patient care compared to more subjective reputation scores. The change to reputation data, coupled with the other methodology improvements made this year, contributed to some significant shifts in the rankings.

Hospitals in four remaining specialties – ophthalmology, psychiatry, rehabilitation and rheumatology – are ranked solely based on their reputation among specialists.

The 2012 “Best Hospitals” list is online at www.usnews.com/besthospitals. Rankings will also appear in U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals 2013 guidebook, available on newsstands in mid-August.